Tonight, Arie Luyendyk Jr. will take a walk down memory lane when season 22 of The Bachelor kicks off. That means revisiting his past relationships, with an emphasis on his almost engagement to Emily Maynard.
Luyendyk Jr. was runner-up on Maynard's season of The Bachelorette. She ended up choosing Jef Holm, though the two called off their engagement in a matter of months. In her statement about the breakup, Maynard said that she and Holm were "ultimately at different points" in their lives.
Luckily, Maynard was able to find love in the end. In 2014, the 31-year-old tied the knot with a man named Tyler Johnson. In her exclusive interview with People, she said, "God brought us together. He’s given me such peace about everything. I’m so grateful I met him."
Tyler Johnson proposed to Maynard right after the ball dropped on January 1, 2014. According to Romper, he gave both Emily and her daughter, Ricki, a ring.
They Met Through Church
E! Online reports that the two met in church, before Emily ever went on The Bachelor. In her blog post from January 2014, Emily says that she and Tyler met in Forest Hill, Charlotte. Emily taught jewelry making at a middle school through her church, and Tyler was one of the coordinators of the program. "... every Thursday I could count on him to come help me carry all of my beads out to my car at the end of class. The only problem was he was so good looking that I could barely make eye contact with him, much less have a normal conversation."
He's a General Manager at Hendrick Automotive Group
According to his LinkedIn, Johnson attended Wingate University on a full athletic and academic scholarship. He graduated with a BSS in Business, and was captain of his football team. For about a year from 2008 to 2009, Johnson worked at Fox Charlotte's WCCB, where he managed and provided broadcast media marketing mixes for clients. Since then, he seems to be pretty involved in cars and the automobile industry.
From 2009 to 2014, Johnson worked as a retail specialist for automotive dealers. From 2014 to 2016, he worked as a general sales manage t and retail operations manager at Hendrick Automotive Group, where he still works.
His profile on Hendrick Motors of Charlotte reveals that he is originally from South Florida, and first entered the car business in 2008. It also says that he enjoys hunting and fishing on his farm in York County, South Carolina.
They Have Four Kids
Those who watched Emily's season of The Bachelorette may recall that when she was just 18, she was engaged to NASCAR driver Ricky Hendrick. Hendrick was tragically killed in a plane crash in 2004. After his death, Emily learned she was pregnant with their daughter, who she named "Ricki" in his honor.
Along with Ricki, who's now 12, Emily and Tyler are parents to Gibson Kyle (14 months), Jennings Tyler (2), and Gatlin Avery, who was born on November 12.
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